The jungle tried to kill them at mile three.
The first portal ripped the ground apart in front of Nicholas. He banked left on instinct, his wolf's paws barely clearing the portal's edge before it widened.
Two more opened behind it. Then four. Then ten.
Sterling saw it from above. The pattern was textbook isolation tactics. The portals were forcing three corridors. Each one wide enough for a single body and too narrow to regroup.
Sterling: They're herding us. Three channels. Do not separate.
The canopy above them detonated, dark fae pouring from the trees. They dropped through the branches in a swarm that hit the jungle floor between the ground team and the dragons above.
Maddox shifted into his dragon, and his flame hit the swarm center-mass.
Then his flame abruptly stopped working. His muscles burned, and his vision doubled.
Sterling: I am losing my shift.
Ryker: Same. My fire is gone.
Griffin: I was just force-shifted and am on the ground. Three fae on me.
